Robust Rice Retreats on Human Rights

From the Remarks of Secretary Condoleezza Rice With EU Secretary General and High Representative Javier Solana, Washington, DC, November 20, 2008

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, how did your meeting with the Libyan Seif al-Islam (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, it was just fine. We had a very good conversation just about how to move the relationship forward.

QUESTION: Did you say anything about human rights? I know you raised Fathi al-Jahmi.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. We did discuss – we did.

QUESTION: And did he –

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Fathi who?

Fathi al-Jahmi, a leading Libyan dissident awaiting a possible death sentence while being held in solitary confinement in Libya, and who is known to have several life-threatening health conditions for which he is receiving little or no medical care. He is charged with having an unauthorized meeting two years ago with a foreign official -- believed to be a U.S. diplomat -- and campaigners are pushing the Bush administration to do more to secure his release.

Jahmi, 65, a democracy activist in Libya since the late 1970s, has been in and out of Libyan jails and survived an assassination attempt in 1990 when gunmen stormed into his house. A civil engineer, Jahmi had served as governor of Libya's oil-rich Gulf province and as head of the National Planning Committee until 1972. After 1978, when his businesses were nationalized, he became Libya's public face for democracy, free enterprise and freedom of expression.

He was imprisoned in October 2002 after delivering a speech at a conference in Tripoli calling for democracy, a free press and the release of political prisoners. He was released on March 12, 2004, after intervention by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.)...

Hmmm. Condi was a bit short-tempered there, no?

After all, the fellow is in deep trouble:

He was detained in March 2004 after calling for a free press and free elections in Libya...Despite recent improvements, al-Jahmi's health had substantially worsened following his March 2004 arrest, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said...As of March 28, al-Jahmi remained in the Tripoli Medical Center and security officers were controlling access to visitors. Al-Jahmi's hospitalization under guard stems from a May 2006, court decision, which determined him mentally unfit for trial and ordered him detained at a psychiatric hospital.